Mobile communications devices (mobile devices), such as wireless PDAs, cellular telephones and smart phones, are becoming increasingly popular for business use due in part to the tendency of today's worker to be out of the office while still being required to be in touch with colleagues, customers and clients. Mobile devices are also very popular for personal use as they enable a person to communicate with friends and family from nearly any location. The relatively recent increase in sophistication, decrease in cost and improvements in services and features supported by mobile communications infrastructures and devices have made such products and services increasingly attractive to users.
Communications features such as call redirecting (also known as “call forwarding”) help make mobile devices really useful for users. Call redirecting enables a communication device user to command the device's network operations center to redirect communications for the communications device to an alternate communications endpoint. For instance, an email normally received wirelessly by the mobile device may be redirected to a desktop computer, or a telephone call normally received wirelessly by the mobile device may be redirected to a desktop telephone. To effect redirecting, using the mobile device a user manually initiates a wireless command to a call controller to redirect calls for the mobile device to an alternate communications device. A benefit accruing from mobile device call forwarding in particular is the option of a user employing a generally less-expensive “land-line” network to receive calls for the mobile device, while being accessible via the mobile device communications address. For instance, when a user reaches the office the user may want all incoming mobile device communications to be directed to their desktop telephone. Similarly, when the user gets home for the day, the user may want all incoming mobile communications to be directed to their home telephone. Furthermore, in anticipation of soon being outside a wireless service area, a user has the option of, for instance, continuing to receive calls by having the wireless network redirect calls through an alternate network to a land-line communications device in a location the user expects to be.
Most network operators offer call redirecting as an option to be activated on the user's account for a fee. In fact, call redirecting is well known in the industry as a method by which a user can deal with multiple phone numbers. However, a difficulty with the requirement of the user to manually activate and de-activate the service is that it is very easy for a user to forget to do so. That is, in a situation where redirecting would be advantageous to the user, a user must remember to inform the network operations center to redirect communications. A further difficulty with activation by wireless command is that, where wireless access is not available to a mobile device user, redirecting cannot be activated using the mobile device.
Cingular, a wireless provider headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., has offered battery chargers incorporating a feature named FastForward™ to address the problems due to mandatory manual activation of call forwarding. FastForward endows a battery charger with the intelligence to send a message to a mobile device to which it is connected, causing in turn the mobile device to send a wireless command to the network operations centre to redirect all calls to an alternate communications endpoint. Cingular's solution is useful in that it overcomes the requirement that call forwarding be activated manually. However, FastForward is a somewhat complex and costly logic component to add to the battery charger, and battery chargers incorporating the feature must be connected to a mobile device via both a serial data connection and a power connection. Normally, a user is not willing to spend large sums of money for a battery charger. Furthermore, Cingular's solution does not address the problem of being unable to trigger call forwarding while outside a wireless coverage area.
It is object of an aspect of the present invention to provide a method and system for triggering redirecting of calls for a mobile device that addresses at least the above-described deficiencies.